Perfect Land Sect
The Perfect Land was a sect of the Brotherhood which taught that people did not have to learn any difficult practices or cultivate merit within themselves. Any who called on Shinsei the Little Teacher, chanting the phrase Shoshi ni kie would be freed from the cycle of rebirth. They said they would find enlightenment after death, in the paradise they said Shinsei had created for them. The Rising Wave, by Marie Brennan The sect did not tolerate worship of the Fortunes or even the ancestors. Snow and Sun, by Marie Brennan Origins In the late ninth century, a young monk of the Shrine of the Seven Thunders named Yuzue believed that the conversation between Shinsei and Hantei had initiated an Age of Celestial Virtue that lasted eight-hundred years, a century for each Kami who heard Shinsei's teachings, and that the ninth century began the Age of Declining Virtue, marked by corruption and difficulty in following the Tao. To beseech Shinsei to return, the monk ceaselessly chanted the mantra Shoshi ni kie ("devotion to the Little Teacher" or "absolute trust in the Little Teacher"). Yuzue came to believe that if enough people chanted this mantra with sincerity, Shinsei would return to usher in a new Age of Celestial Virtue. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 20 The Perfect Land saw Shinsei as a hero, and its dogma described the Little Teacher as a benevolent immortal who guided and blessed humanity from not Yomi, but Tengoku. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 168 The Perfect Land would be the place where Shinsei awaited the faithful in the Heavens. Like Seeds on the Wind, by Marie Brennan Foundation Yuzue's student Gatai founded the Perfect Land Sect following Yuzue's death, based on a sutra she had written shortly before her passing. Yuzue's Sutra claimed that Shinsei did not return to the Void when he departed from Ningen-dō, but instead dwelt in a Perfect Land within Tengoku, the Celestial Heavens. The Perfect Land Sect believed that those who chanted the kie, as Yuzue's mantra became known, could join Shinsei in the Perfect Land upon their death, rather than face judgment in Meido and rebirth based on their karma. In the Perfect Land, under the tutelage of the Little Teacher himself, the faithful could achieve Enlightenment without suffering on the wheel of rebirth. Monks The warrior-monks who served the Perfect Land Sect were not monks in the traditional sense; they wore the white headscarves and uniforms of novice monks, but most were illiterate and ill-educated in the precepts and texts of their own religion. They cared only to wield spear, naginata, and kongōsho. They had unshakable faith that to die while fighting for those causes ensured a superior reincarnation. Heresy These teachings appealed to peasants, but they were rejected by the Phoenix Clan, considering the sect theology a false path. By the middle of the tenth century, the Perfect Land Sect was outlawed in Phoenix lands, driving many believers to seek safety and isolation in the Dragon mountains. The Perfect Land Sect flourished in the Dragon lands, and their followers had grown more vocal and more violent. The leaders of the Perfect Land said the world had entered the Age of Declining Virtue, and that samurai were to blame for the Empire's many ills. The Scorpion sent shinobi to learn what their goals were, and whether they had ties to the Dragon. In the Garden of Lies (Part 2), by Marie Brennan The sect took residence in the abandoned White Flower Village. Known Members * Gatai - Founder (9th century) * Hige - monk and leader * Kakita Sakura - samurai * Kanbei - merchant * Mirumoto Ichirō - samurai * Mirumoto Kazuya - samurai * Momoe - peasant * Satto - rōnin * Togashi Tadakatsu - monk * Yuki - peasant Category:Schools of the Brotherhood of Shinsei (TCG)